White House threatens veto of Republican plan linking balanced budget amendment to debt limit

(White House photo)
 

House Republicans are likely to pass a bill this week which would block any increases in the debt limit unless a balanced budget amendment adopted. It's a purely political play; Republicans could propose an actual balanced budget if they wanted to, but instead they are proposing a procedural gimmick to distract from the fact that even their plan to eliminate Medicare wouldn't balance the budget.

The GOP plan probably won't pass the Senate, but if it does, the White House is now saying President Obama will veto it, releasing a new Statement of Administration Policy saying it "strongly opposes" the GOP plan because it "sets out a false and unacceptable choice between the Federal Government defaulting on its obligations now or, alternatively, passing a Balanced Budget Amendment that, in the years ahead, will likely leave the Nation unable to meet its core commitment of ensuring dignity in retirement." (The full statement is below the fold.)

At least to me, the most absurd thing about this proposal is that even though every Republican will probably vote in favor of it, many if not most of those same Republicans will turn right around and do the opposite of what their legislation calls for. In one breath they'll say that the debt limit shouldn't be raised without adopting a balanced budget amendment and in the next they'll say it should be raised anyway. I guess I shouldn't be surprised, though, because not much of anything that Republicans have said in this debate has made any sense whatsoever.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/CK_AsziAebM/-White-House-threatens-veto-of-Republican-plan-linking-balanced-budget-amendment-to-debt-limit

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